Eurofound background paper on women and violence at work

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Condition (Eurofound) research shows that women, especially younger women, are more exposed to bullying than men, although this may be as much related to circumstantial aspects of women's work ­ sectoral concentration, gender of boss, level of customer contact, etc ­ as to gender per se.

Psychological violence (bullying, harassment, mobbing, etc) at work is multifactoral and multidimensional. It has many different manifestations and can originate from factors that are individual, situational, organisational or social ­ or, indeed, from a combination of each. Evidence suggests that certain features of work organisation are associated with higher levels of bullying, such as:

low levels of autonomy;

high levels of work intensity;

working in frequent contact with customers, clients and other non-colleagues.

Though psychological violence is, by its nature, more cumulative in its impact than physical violence, the data confirms that its negative health effects measured in terms of absenteeism due to work-related ill-health are more severe than those associated with physical workplace violence.

Levels of psychological violence are at least as prevalent as those of physical violence in European workplaces. An awareness of this has led to calls for a specific EU legislative instrument to cover psychological violence, as the main existing EU workplace health and safety legislation (e.g. Directive EU/89/391) was devised more with traditional, physical workplace risks in mind. However, earlier this year, an EU-level social partner framework agreement on violence at work provided a soft law' solution that makes a separate EU legislative initiative unlikely. Many Member State governments have been actively developing legislative and non-legislative approaches to harassment/sexual harassment in recent years.

Legislatively, workplace psychological violence has been dealt with under various banners: that of workplace gender equality, non-discrimination, as well as health and safety. This may explain why there has been a fusion of traditional concerns with health and safety and quality of work with a newer focus on dignity at work and associated concerns with combating discrimination. Increasingly, the policy trend has been to assert the rights of European workers ­ male and female ­ to a working life that is healthy and safe both physically and psychologically and also one that ensures respect for the workers' human dignity, privacy and integrity' (European Parliament, 2001). In this way, it can be said that the EU, as well as many individual Member States, are striving to improve working conditions by raising the levels of protection that workers can reasonably expect in their working lives.